Activate My Heart
by Kisuke17Night
Summary: Itahci was dying. But one bad trip in the woods is about to change everything. He has now been thrown into a world of violence blood hunters and the hunted. Not only does he have to figure out how he's suddenly healthy again he has to deal with all these new problems. Itachi just wanted to live not gain a whole new life. WEREWOLVES INSIDE!
1. Oh My God Please Help Me

_I don't own anything but the totally awesome story I'm about to tell you. Hope you enjoy!_

Itachi Uchiha always knew he was going to die.

He expected pain, fear, maybe even some regrets echoing in the back of his mind.

But he didn't expect for it to happen anything like this. You see Itachi expected to die, because he knew he didn't have much longer to last. The disease was progressing faster than he and the doctors thought it would, and he had been getting weaker by the minute. The meds weren't helping and his will was wavering. There was just so much pain.

So much pain.

And then there wasn't any at all, and Itachi couldn't help but think.

_Damn do I want to live like this?_

No one even knew he was dying. Except for his mother, and the doctors. His father was away on business for the past seven months and wasn't due back for another three. And his mom being the saint, note his sarcasm at that thought, wasn't going to worry the man. But it had been getting harder to hide it from Sasuke and Shishui. So Itachi had escaped to the cabin in the woods for the weekend. Just so he could sulk and, well suffer alone. Without worrying anyone.

And now he was dying.

Or at least Itachi was sure he was dying. The pain was so incredibly unbearable he didn't have the strength to get into the house.

It all started like this.

Itachi had woken up at the ungodly hour of ten in the morning he took his meds. Ate some random stale cereal that the Uchiha's had left on their last trip out to the cabin, and watched daytime TV since there was no cable in the middle of nowhere. Once he got bored of court shows, and who's your baby daddy, Itachi turned the mind rotting contraption off. He opted to read some of the books in the library and gave up when he realized they were all boring as hell.

So now that it was midday, and he had once again drugged himself on his daily dose of heart pills, Itachi ate again. Only this time he ate the stale cereal without milk, and drank two, okay so he drank three sodas. Two mountain dews, and a big red. And since his doctors had told him to stay away from caffeine he was sort of wishing he had listened.

Though it wasn't until Itachi thought he was going to die of extreme cabin fever, he took his cell phone, meds, and a flashlight out into the woods with him.

When he was younger Shishui would tell him stories about wolves, and hunters out in the woods. Itachi had always loved those stories. And as he walked aimlessly around the all too familiar woods he thought of his favorite one.

It was the story of how the wolves came to the woods.

It was long, long ago. Before cars or telephones. Shishui always said this when he opened with this story. There was a village of people living here in the woods. They grew all the food they could ever want to eat, and lived happily. Until one year a fire burned through everything. All the food they had grown burned down, and wouldn't grow anymore. And as the months got colder, and their bellies went empty people got sick, and some people even died. It was then that one man decided to hunt the animal around them. Only all of the animals were starving, and dying as well. So any that they could have eaten as food were thin, and small, or already dead and decaying. It was a very sad time.

Itachi remembered feeling sorry for the poor hungry people, and animals. And Shishui would have to remind him it was only a story, then go on to picking on him about being a baby.

Back to the tale. A year goes by and few people were left, and even fewer resources. But with spring came more animals, and a fresh harvest. Only the plants they had finally successfully grown were bad from the dead they had buried around them. So the weak humans that were left started hunting again. But everything seemed to be faster, and stronger than them.

One night the leader of the humans prayed. He prayed to the moon goddess to grant them the skills to hunt for food and survive the way they so desperately wanted to. A whole moon cycle went by, a month, Shishui would remind him. And on the night of a full moon a large wolf appeared before the villagers. And it wasn't alone, it had piles of food with it rabbits, deer, even a bear. The humans were so thankful for the food they didn't know what to do. So they offered it the best of it's hunted down game, and when all the food was gone asked it one thing. They asked to be taught how to hunt like it did. The wolf agreed. Seeing no reason to hunt for the humans all the time even if the moon goddess had commanded it.

Once he agreed the wolf taught them everything he knew. And eventually the humans were more wolf than human. But it wasn't until the wolf fell in love with his human charges that he granted them something special. Taking a piece of his own fur he gave some to each of his beloved humans. Once they took it the people were able to become like the wolf. See as he did, hear as he did, even look as he did. They were a pack, and they were powerful. No longer did they grow their food. No they took what they needed in flesh and blood. They hunted together with the wolf, as wolves with teeth and claws. The cold no longer made them sick for they didn't feel it underneath their fur, and any illness they had prior to being given that piece of fur vanished. As if never there.

Then the humans began to have children. And these kids were born with that wolf power already a part of them. Making, and Shishui paused for dramatic affect every time, Werewolves.

As Itachi remembered the last of his favorite story he felt a twang in his chest. He paused in his walking and pulled out his medications. He really wasn't in the mood to end up having an episode out in the middle of nowhere. But luck wasn't on the Uchiha's side that evening.

When he finally got the bottle open Itachi got a more intense pain in his chest. Like being stabbed with a sword straight through. He coughed and fell to his knees. Dropping his pill, he scrambled to try and pick them all up. Then the worst of all pains struck throughout his whole body. Like a lightning bolt hitting him dead in the chest and spreading out to the rest of him.

Itachi's whole body shook and he collapsed onto the hard earth. He half screamed in pain as another wave of lighting like pain shot through him. Laying there on the cool ground Itachi couldn't help but think he was going to die like this.

Which brings us to Itachi mentally going over the day's events leading up to the sever episode about to take his life.

As pain coursed through him Itachi stared up at the night sky. He chuckled painfully when he realized it was a full moon out.

Staring up at the beautiful moon Itachi figured it was only a fitting way to die. Under the night sky when no one would come looking for him for another two days. The sigh he attempted turned into a gasp of pain.

Peeling his eyes open once more Itachi couldn't help remembering the story Shishui had told him countless times. About how the leader had prayed to the moon for help.

Itachi wasn't one to lie down and just die. There was no way he was going to give up when there was so much he wanted to do before he died. Itachi wanted to play sports at school, get straight A's and graduate his senior year as valid Victorian. He wanted to live to see Sasuke grow up and get married, have kids, and live happily. Itachi wanted to party with Shishui and get into crazy trouble like they always did when they two of them got together.

But most of all Itachi wanted to live.

"Help me."

He whispered brokenly to the moon above him.

"I need to live."

He felt tears actually sting his eyes and pushed them back as another wave of pain coursed through him.

"Help me be stronger."

He begged. Then screamed as his heart stopped and jolted harshly in his chest. Coughing, he turned achingly to his side and blood fell from his lips to the dirt floor he laid on. He could taste the metallic liquid of his life on his tongue and cringed.

"Make me stronger."

Itachi continued to cough up blood, and wither in pain on the forest floor. He was already so consumed in his agony he didn't hear the footsteps behind him. Didn't see the flash of silver in the trees and he definitely didn't notice the wolf striding towards him.

What Itachi did notice though were the teeth sinking into his left bicep. He was already screaming in pain and didn't feel the need to hold back as he continued to.

A few seconds later and Itachi blacked out. He was positive that he wouldn't be waking back up. That the last barely there moon beam he saw was the last thing he would ever see. Itachi just prayed that he opened his eyes once more. If only to say his good byes to his family.

He didn't know he was being dragged back to his front door. Or that the wolf that had just sunk their fangs into him was watching as everything about the Uchiha fixed itself.

The wolf watched with one red eye and one black as the Uchiha no longer suffered and slept in obliviousness as to the gift he had just been given. Anyone who saw the wolf wouldn't have missed the smirk on its lips as the wound he gave the Uchiha stitched itself back together. Leaving only a light scar as proof of every being damaged.

When the sun rose the wolf was gone, and Itachi slept peacefully on the front porch of the cabin.


	2. Knee Deep in the River

_Here's chapter two to my new fic. I have a nice number of hits for it already and I hope to see some reviews soon! I hope you enjoy the chapter and leave me some feedback. _

Itachi woke up in his bed covered in sweat once again. That dream had come back to haunt him, and on his first day of school no less. He sighed and attempted to run his fingers through his knotted and sweat soaked hair.

Itachi, not for the first time, questioned his decision of keeping his hair long.

"Wakey, wakey Itachi!"

His door was thrown open with so much force it crashed into the wall and Itachi cringed at the thought of another crack or hole left. Standing there in his doorway, giant, annoying grin plastered on his face was Itachi's most hated (self-proclaimed beloved) cousin Shishui.

"Go die."

Itachi mumbled as he rolled over away from his cousin.

"Tsk, tsk that won't do at all."

Itachi's grip on his covers tightened as he heard the approaching footsteps of Shishui as he grew closer. What Shishui did wasn't what Itachi had predicted he would do. Instead of reaching and pulling the covers off of him like usual his cousin. No his cousin decided he would effectively take over his bed and shove Itachi off of it, all in one fluid motion. One moment Itachi is comfortably snuggled, a word he would never admit to thinking, and the next he was on the cold hard wood floors, tangled up in his covers.

"Dude I can totally see why you never want to get out of this thing now. Your bed is awesome."

Shishui rolled back and forth on his bed as Itachi strained to pick himself up off of the floor.

"Yeah it is. And get off before you infect it with your stupid disease and I have to burn it just to be safe."

"Wow Itachi way to let me know you love me."

Shishui being as dramatic as always clutched his chest as if he was physically hurt by the words.

"Get out so I can get ready."

Itachi nearly growled in annoyance. It was too early, and he was still riled up from the nightmare/memory of what had happened two weeks ago.

"I'm goin, I'm goin. You have about forty minutes till we have to leave so make it snappy. No hair obsessing today dear cousin."

Itachi threw a pillow that had hit the floor with him at Shishui that hit him before he could get the door closed. There was a fake scream of pain from behind the closed door and Itachi couldn't help but smile to himself at his little act of revenge on Shishui.

"I really need a lock for that thing."

He mumbled to himself as he took off the white t-shirt he had worn to sleep in. Itachi glanced down at his bicep and with his opposite hand traced the white scar with his finger. He could feel where it dented in his arm and how the scars were smoother than the rest of his skin. Scars were nothing new to the Uchiha in fact it wasn't a surprise for him to find scars he had completely forgotten about. But this one was different. This one looked like something had taken a bite out of him.

As he traced the white lines of his scar and image of one red and one black came to his mind. A ghost pain in his chest twanging in reminder of the severe pain he had felt two weeks ago.

Looking away from his scar Itachi rummaged through his closet for a shirt to wear. He settled on a plain black shirt, and dark colored blue jeans. Nothing fancy just the way he liked it. He slipped on a pair of all black convers and his studded belt. It took him a total of five minutes to get dressed. And spent another three on combing out his hair and tying it back into a loose ponytail. One last glance in the mirror and Itachi deemed himself ready to go.

He snagged a leather jacket from his desk chair, and left his room.

Down stairs he found his mother shuffling about the kitchen, Sasuke looking half asleep at the table, and Shishui twirling his car keys as he leaned against the back door.

"Mikoto we really should get going soon, just leave the kid alone. With Itachi there we have nothing to worry about. You know he would never let something happen to your baby."

Shishui grinned once again when he spotted Itachi as he entered the kitchen.

"What's going on?"

He asked the question directed to Shishui but his eyes on his mother.

"She's just freaking about Sasuke's first day of high school. You know how she gets."

There was an unsuspected dishrag thrown across the room and hit Shishui dead in the face.

"I am not. I'm just concerned about my boys going to school again. You hear so many horror stories about those schools and I just don't want anything to happen to either of my boys."

Her eyes rested on Itachi who pretended he wasn't paying attention to the silent message she had hidden in there. She was worried Itachi would have an episode at school. He hadn't told her that he had felt fine since the last one in the woods.

Hell she didn't even know about what happened that weekend. And he wasn't sure he should until he knew for sure that he was okay.

"Everything will be fine mom."

She smiled worriedly but nodded.

"You're right. Go I don't want you two being late your first day of school."

Sasuke hugged Mikoto briefly before shuffling out of the house after his brother and cousin. The three of them piled into Shishui's ancient pick up.

"Sasuke liven up you look like a zombie!"

Shishui joked as he started the car.

"I feel like a zombie."

Sasuke muttered. They went on talking but Itachi had toned them out as his thoughts wandered back to his weekend two weeks ago.

Reliving the episode, then blacking out to wake up on the front porch of the cabin. He had been so sure that was it for him when he lost consciousness. Itachi was almost certain that it was his final episode and he wouldn't live through it. But he had, and there hadn't been one since. It was strange.

Not only had be not had any episodes he felt incredible. Better than he could ever remember feeling in a long time. There was no rapid heartbeat, no shortness of breath, or extreme exhaustion. Nothing.

His hand unconsciously brought his hand up to the scar that seemed to pulse with the memory of his former weakness. It was like a silent reminder that something was different. He could feel it pulsing in his veins he just wasn't sure what it was exactly. This wild feeling just under his skin.

"Itachi. Earth to Itachi."

"What?"

He asked calmly even though he had been caught daydreaming but Shishui.

"Sasuke already got off I was just trying to make sure you were cool."

"Yeah I'm fine."

Shishui smiled, and it was nothing like the giant grins he showed most of the time. No this was one of his 'I know your lying' looks.

"It's nothing. There's just a lot to deal with this year. Sasuke a freshmen, you a student teacher, and me being a senior. It's a lot to deal with Shi, and you know that."

Shishui nodded and patted his younger cousin on the shoulder.

"I know, but I have a feeling this year something big is going to happen."

And oddly enough Itachi could feel it too. He just wasn't so sure it was going to be something good. Shishui shoved Itachi, making the younger teen smile just a bit as he shoved his cousin back.

"Now let's go before I have to write us both up for being late."

Itachi chuckled as he climbed out of the truck.

"Yeah wouldn't want anyone to think you were letting me off easy just cause were related."

He said seriously. Shishui laughed as he hooked an arm around his younger cousins shoulders.

"Awe you know I'll be extra hard on you Tachi. It's in my nature to be evil to any blood relative I have."

Itachi rolled his eyes, and shrugged the arm off of him.

"Whatever. I have a locker to track down. I'll see you in English Mr. Uchiha."

Shishui visibly shivered at the formality in which Itachi said his name.

"That just makes me feel so old."

He grumbled. Itachi laughed.

"Awe my cousin but you are old."

Shishui attempted to smack his cousin upside the head but the younger Uchiha ducked and rushed off down the hall before Shishui could retaliate.

"I'll get him back in class."

He mumbled to himself as he headed off in the opposite direction to Itachi.

Itachi finally found his locker and was pleased to discover it was a top locker. It was his fourth year at Konoha High and he had not had the misfortune of getting a bottom locker. After sorting through his things and only taking what he needed for the first half of his day he shoved what was left into the metal box.

When he closed his locker Itachi froze. He felt eyes on him. Someone was watching him, and not the usual kind of watching he got at school. The kind that made his skin crawl. No this was someone watching him, someone dangerous. The hairs on the back of his neck attested to that.

Trying not to give away that he knew he was being watched Itachi, as casually as he could manage turned around. Out of the corner of his eyes he thought he saw a flash of red eyes, but when he turned to look there was nothing but other students shuffling to their classes.

When he saw no one was there he also felt his senses calm down. There was no longer someone watching him.

And he couldn't help but think.

_Maybe it was a something._


	3. Tryin' to get Clean

Itachi was sitting in class when it hit him.

The noises. They were so amplified and he couldn't figure out why. Before in the house he had blamed it on crappy insulating but there was no way he should be able to hear the girl at the front of the class tapping her pencil like it was a gun shot.

Then there was the guy three seats behind him chewing gum, yeah lets just say it didn't sound pleasant and leave it at that.

After a few minutes a near panic metal state Itachi calmed down. He was just imagining it, he was just freaking out on the first day of school. It was all normal and okay. Or at least that was how he was going to lie to himself until he got over whatever was happening to him. On the outside no one would have thought the Uchiha was panicking, but on the inside he was screaming in fear.

This wasn't normal!

When the bell rang, letting them out of first period Itachi couldn't help but think there was no way he was going to make it the rest of the day like this. He cut to the nurse's office for his meds. Maybe he was just long overdue a dose of his heart meds. And this was just some kind of tripped out withdraw symptom. His movements seemed normal but he was moving with an inner urgency for his meds. If the solution was so simple he would fix whatever was wrong right then and there.

"Itachi!"

He halted his steps hurriedly as Kisame approached him. The other teen was one of the few people in the school who didn't see him as the genius Uchiha, with a ton of money. Kisame was more of a loud person who rarely got along with other people, and liked that Itachi didn't care if he had blue hair.

"Kisame."

The greeting was spoken in his usual even tone of voice but his friends ears perked up and his head tilted to the side slightly.

"What's wrong?"

He had dropped his smile and was staring at Itachi, daring the shorter teen to lie to him.

"Meds. Just going to get something for a headache."

The look Kisame gave him told him the blue teen didn't believe him for one second.

"It's nothing Kisame. I'll see you at lunch."

Kisame grinned.

"Yeah with your cousin and the twerp there too. Shishui is cool and all but eating with a teach is so wrong."

"Shishui will cry if he hears you say that."

Kisame laughed and smacked Itachi on the shoulder.

"Yeah I bet he will. Go do whatever you were going to. I'll force you to tell me about it later."

Itachi nodded but made no promises.

He shuffled down the hall to the nurse's office and nearly sighed in relief when he saw Iruka sitting there in his usual white coat. The man smiled when he saw Itachi, then frowned as he remembered why the teen came to the nurse's office.

"You should really carry your medications with you Itachi."

Iruka reprimanded as he got up to get the pills Itachi was in a hurry to take. He handed the colorful cocktail to the teen and watched as he downed them without water.

"Caught it just in time then?"

Iruka asked worriedly. He had seen how Itachi gets when he doesn't catch the episodes early on, and it was something neither of them wanted to deal with again.

"Yes."

The man still watched him closely as Itachi sat down in one of the horrible plastic waiting chairs.

"Let me write you a note and you can head back to class when you're ready."

Iruka sat back down in his chair, and Itachi could hear it creak like an old steel door. He tried his best to cover up the flinch but nothing got past the sharp eyes of Iruka.

"Maybe you should lie down for a few minutes. Get yourself all evened out before going back to class."

Itachi listened to the pen scrawl across the paper, and the soft squeak of the wheels on the janitors cart outside the door.

"I think I will. But only for a moment."

He got up and laid on one of the beds. Iruka pulled the curtain closed around him and after a few seconds returned to his desk. Itachi could hear him typing, and wondered if it was on his computer or phone. When the sound of muted ringing reached his ears he had his answer. The phone on the other end of the line rang twice before it was answered.

"Hello?"

It was his mother.

"Yes Mrs. Uchiha I was just calling to inform you of Itachi coming to see me."

Iruka was talking in a hushed voice. Probably low enough that if Itachi wasn't able to hear like he could at the moment he wouldn't have heard the man talking at all. Let alone his mother on the other side of the phone conversation.

"Oh goodness is he alright?"

She sounded worried. More so than he had ever heard her around any of her children. And that was saying something. Since Mikoto had always been very open with her worry towards them. Or at least that's what Itachi had thought. He guessed he was wrong. Something totally foreign to him. Being wrong.

"He seems okay right now. I have him lying down to keep an eye on him for a moment. But if nothing happens I'll have to send him back to class."

"I know."

She sounded so bone tired Itachi had to wonder how much his mother really did worry about him.

"He had just been doing so good for the last few weeks I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was hoping this call wasn't it falling yet. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him. To either of my boys."

Iruka hummed in understanding and when the door opened to the nurse's office, Itachi could hear him moving in his seat to see who had entered.

"I have to go now, but I'll be sure to contact you if anything comes up."

"Yes, thank you Iruka."'

Itachi heard the click of both people hanging up and sat up. He had to get to class if there was nothing wrong with his heart. He was going to use every minute he could to live. There was no stopping him now.

"Itachi here's your note."

He took it carefully from the older man and nodded his thanks.

The rest of the morning went on in a similar fashion as first period.

Itachi listened to everything around him, slightly mentally freaked out every time, and repeat. Needless to say by lunch time he was exhausted. He ungracefully collapsed into his seat next to Kisame and rested his head on the, probably filthy, table in front of him.

"That bad uh?"

Itachi said nothing. He listened as Kisame rambled on about his day, and then when Shishui sat down and began to argue with the younger teen. A few minutes before the bell rang Itachi's head shot up from the table.

It was happening again.

There was someone watching him. He glanced over and saw that Shishui must have felt it too since he was no longer arguing with Itachi's friend. They made eye contact and both realized they weren't imaging it if the other felt it too.

They tried not to draw too much attention to themselves as they scooped out the cafeteria. Itachi saw Sasuke and his friends eating lunch, and laughing together. He saw groups, masses even of people completely ignoring the two Uchiha's scanning the place. And then he froze.

There in the corner of the cafeteria by the back exit doors was a man with silver hair, and one exposed black eye. He was watching Itachi and even nodded when he made eye contact.

Shishui followed his cousins line of vision and did a double take. Itachi couldn't see the mans mouth but he had a feeling he was smirking at them. Then a person walking in front of the two Uchiha's and by the time they were out of the way.

The man was gone.

Shishui elbowed Itachi hard in the ribs.

"Do you know who that was!"

He whisper screamed. Which is hard to pull off but Shishui was the kind of person to make the impossible happen.

Itachi shrugged.

"A creep probably."

Shishui smacked him upside the head.

"That was Kakashi Hatake. You know the one who's dad killed himself a few years ago."

Itachi vaguely remembered reading about that somewhere but was a little fuzzy on the details.

"And?"

He asked. Shishui had a thing for dramatics and it got irritating.

"And he hasn't been in town since it happened. I heard he got some kind of government job and high tailed it out of here."

"Maybe he just wanted to come home."

Shishui sighed and gave up arguing.

"Yeah maybe."

"I heard he's the new English teacher replacing Sarutobi."

Kisame commented with a chunk of pizza in his mouth. Before either Uchiha could ask him anything the bell rang.

"Shishui have you seen the teacher you're working with yet?"

Shishui shook his head slowly.

"No. I've been in the office all morning finishing up some paperwork. I'm heading over to the class now."

Itachi nodded slowly as he rose from his seat.

"I think you might have just seen him."

His cousin nodded in agreement as they left the cafeteria.

"Guess I'll find out now."

_Okay that's all for now. Please let me know how this is going I lovey the reviews _ or you know just ignore this and read the next chapter I love the hits as much as the reviews. Hope you like it so far!_


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